Finding paths in Waterdeep

12th & 13th Ches

3 Cults, 1 City

The (soon to be named) Wayfinders spent the 12th of Ches in and around Waterdeep, with varying degrees of success.

The map-seller was bullied into bringing back information about Zhoet and company to the Flaming Flagon. He’s expected to leave notes under a loose floorboard in a private room at the tavern.

The party decided to investigate the burned-down buildings on Slut Street, with Japheck taking Yuun, and Talyria into the main building, while the rest checked out the adjacent structure.

Dead Banites were found inside the main building, as well as a pair of ghosts echoing the last moments of their lives. The second building housed little of interest besides a trapped chest that was enchanted to disintegrate anyone who tampered with it. After thinking very seriously about this, the group left the buildings, and resolved to warn the City Watch about it. Before they could do so, Japheck and Yuun got into a screaming match and stormed off in opposite directions. Talyria announced that she was going to the Flaming Flagon to perform because she was bored.

With that, Jorin, Osprey, Gen, and Lyssiah headed back the the Temple of the Seldarine to relax. Finding both her High Priest and his Number 2 priest gone (with the High Priest attending a meeting at the Temple of Tyr,) Lyssiah settled into her role as temporary Oracle-In-Charge. She promptly had the #2’s bedroom into an animal hospital for the city’s strays. Jorin left to find the Hammermaster of Moradin’s Forge, who was himself at a meeting in the Temple of Tyr, and had left instructions for his priests to apply any anti-undead wards available to them.

The group decided to go to the Temple of Tyr themselves, and gained access to the meeting using Lyssiah’s credentials as Seldarine clergy to observe silently from the balcony (even though Gen got scolded for casting Detect Magic in the foyer.) Within the Halls of Justice, Dalorna Viskel was giving the assembled priests a dressing down for refusing to move against the threat of Orcus’ minions. While she (as Kelemvor’s clergy) found support from the temples of Lathander, the Seldarine and the Mordinsmen, the majority ruled to see to Waterdeep first, and not send elite forces abroad. When she called for anyone in the chamber to show a measure of support for the cause, the party collectively raised their hands, causing the assemblage to take note of them, for good or ill. They were introduced to everyone (the Open Lord among them) as the adventurers who thwarted the necromancer, and assisted in the destruction of the Demon-book. As the meeting adjourned, the Wayfinders were cordially invited to a private meeting room in the temple. They sat with the faiths who supported moving against Orcus’ mortal pawns, and the clergy of Tyr. Dalorna and Piergeiron the Paladinson came a few minutes later, still arguing.

The Wayfinders told the Open Lord all they knew of the goings-on in the City, and he left, especially disturbed by how the news of the abductions didn’t reach him. The others wished the party well before heading off, aside from Dalorna and her War Wizard commander, who attempted to gently recruit the party to come and aid their work in Cormyr. Dalorna wished them well after they declined, and hoped to see them all again soon.

The 13th saw our heroes awaken at an inn, from which they began searching out news of the disappearances. While out on recon, Osprey chose to defy gravity in order to capture a fellow who had been spying on them from above. He claimed to be a member of the Red Sashes, a vigilante group who claim to protect the poor inhabitants of Waterdeep. He told them that most of the abductions were believed to be happening near The Hanged Man, a tavern on Net Street, and that many more had been taken than the six The Wayfinders had been told of.

The group took a few hours to rest before a midnight jaunt into the Dock Ward, where they stopped a break-in near their target area. After some stealth and subterfuge, Gen knocked out Lerg, the Half-Orc thug who was noted as the carriage driver, and slipped a thought into his mind to use the information about his organization to intimidate him. Lerg spilled the proverbial beans, and told told Gen (disguised as the butcher who’s shop they were in) about Ryner and Biser, that the kidnappers were perhaps a half-dozen strong, and that there was a temple to Loviatar somewhere in the city. The group knocked him out, and with the assistance of three more city Watchmen (who loaded unconscious thugs into the cart) they arrested Lerg, three thugs and a Cyricist who thought she could just murder Osprey and Lyssiah while the pair camped on a rooftop.

Having gotten (most of) the address of the warehouse the victims were being brought to from Lerg, the party +3 decided to clean house. Gen (transformed into Lerg) led the carriage in, while Lyssiah and Jorin hid under the hay, and Osprey made ready to sneak in. The Watchmen waited around a corner for the sounds of battle. Osprey started things off by removing a thug’s manhood with her fist, before Lyssiah finished him off. The Watchmen rushed forward, Jorin went looking for stragglers, and Gen moved off to the side to Entangle the back of the warehouse. Osprey beat on another thug before Ryner charged Osprey, stabbing at her. Lyssiah killed that thug shortly before Biser dropped down from the rafters above, killing two Watchmen. Biser, Osprey, Jorin, and Jan (the last surviving Watchman) fought Biser, while Ryner and Lyssiah exchanged blows. Gen drank a potion of Enlarge Person and began swinging Lerg’s Greataxe around. The party continued to beat on their foes until Biser, his ribs shattered by Jorin’s warhammer, flattened Jan with a series of quick strikes. Gen lashed out in anger for the first time, killing both Biser and Ryner, before walking away to sit down while the Enlarge Person effect wore off.

Jan survived thanks to attention from Jorin and Lyssiah, after which he summoned more Watchmen to the warehouse. The party relieved the villains of their equipment, discovering flesh-carvings of Loviatar’s [un]holy symbol on the backs of both Ryner and Biser. A search turned up fourteen victims, drugged and awaiting shipment to the Temple of Loviatar. A sewer grate behind the warehouse had been tampered with to allow ingress and egress, something the group considered “likely” as a means of transport for the victims.

With that, the group headed to an inn to rest away the remainder of the night…